Source; Wikiemdia Commons

A troubling increase in heroin use and addiction is currently sweeping parts of the United States, and public health officials in that country are once again clashing with law enforcement and legislators as to how they should manage this “substance abuse epidemic” this time around. The cold turkey remedy is hardly an optimal approach to kicking heroin and opiate habits, but prescribing other medications for this purpose is always controversial in the U.S., a nation that has been waging the violent War on Drugs for several decades without an end or solution in sight.

In Costa Rica, a couple of clinics offer a controversial treatment for heroin addicts that consists of taking certain amounts of Ibogaine, a substance extracted from a few plants that are native to Western Africa. Ibogaine is extracted from these flowering shrubs, and the result is a substance with psychoactive and psychedelic properties. Research on the therapeutic potential of Ibogaine indicates that the substance can be used to help heroin and opiate addicts to overcome their patterns of abuse. According to a 2013 article published by The Village Voice:

Despite [medicinal benefits], [Ibogaine] has been banned in the United States since the 1960s. Scientists are working to isolate the active compounds in ibogaine to maximize the anti-addiction properties while eliminating the hallucinations and other unpleasant side effects. In the meantime, a handful of posh rehab resorts in Mexico, Costa Rica, and elsewhere meet the demand for ibogaine treatment by offering weeklong therapy sessions that can cost thousands.

A couple of years ago, a former addict from Detroit established an Ibogaine clinic in Costa Rica, where the substance is not illegal. In a 2014 interview published by Complex magazine, Dimitri Mugianis explained that he made the decision to open a clinic here after his 2011 arrest in the U.S. for providing Ibogaine to an addict he intended to help. This is how he described the situation:

[…] there was somebody who eventually became a paid informant. She had contacted us to do the treatment and we decided not to because she had the money to do the treatment properly in Mexico at a facility. Unbeknownst to us, around that time she’d started to work with the DEA as an informant.

I went to Gabon in Africa to look for a deeper meaning, a deeper piece of this. I went to Gabon because I ‘d been through a lot, including someone almost dying during treatment. […] the real miracle of iboga, [is that] the withdrawals are greatly reduced if not eliminated. I kicked 100 mg of methadone and I was hurting for a good month afterwards, but I didn’t go through withdrawal.

Iboga is endangered. So at Iboga Life in Costa Rica we we’ve started to use iboga HCL, which comes from another plant, called voacanga and we are contributing to efforts to replant iboga.

Another iboga experience in Costa Rica was described by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) last year:

[Canadian and former addict] Chad McPherson says he credits the Ibogaine treatment he received in Costa Rica with saving his life, and getting his drug and alcohol addiction under control.

McPherson admits the experience may be hard to believe, and he can’t explain what happened to him in Costa Rica, but he knows for certain that he’s no longer a drug addict.

“I don’t suffer from any cravings, I don’t fear relapse symptoms. They’re just not there anymore.”

The program cost McPherson $10,000, but he said he wants the [Canadian] federal government to recognize ibogaine therapy here so it can be accessible to all Canadians who are struggling with addictions. See https://costaricatreatmentcenter.com for information on more traditional and effective drug and alcohol treatment.